Burn­ing Man

Tal Afar, Iraq—the Iraqi army and Shi­ite mili­tias bat­tle the Is­lamic State group on Au­gust 26. Roughly a month af­ter ISIS fled Mo­sul, the Iraqi-led coali­tion has taken back this city from the mil­i­tants as well. Although there was still some light fight­ing out­side of the city at press time, Iraqi sol­diers cel­e­brated by tak­ing down ISIS flags and rais­ing their own. Tal Afar was a ma­jor sup­ply route con­nect­ing the mil­i­tants in Iraq to their com­rades in Syria, and ISIS’S quick col­lapse doesn’t bode well for the ji­hadis as Iraq con­tin­ues to re­con­quer ter­ri­tory it lost just a few years ago.